What a relief! I had an ominous feeling like maybe you were going to announce that Sparkfun was being bought-out by one of those corporate “big-box” behemoths and that much more fun in the world would die.

Nice addition, but I have one nagging feeling… Due to the the various bending and torsional stresses these things are likely to encounter, shouldn’t one side have a tab bent out and straightened for through-hole mounting? Even if the whole bottom diameter is well soldered, I can’t image springs that rely on just a surface mount connection holding up to the use (or should I say abuse) I put my electronics learning lab through when I was a kid…;)

Perhaps it’s just me but, I would change one word of the following sentence in order to unequivocally agree with it.

I am of the belief that we have a right to do whatever we choose with the products we buy as consumers.

I’d change it to read as follows

I am of the belief that we have a right to do whatever we choose to the products we buy as consumers.

This is because there are a lot of things you could do with a product that most people would agree you don’t normally have any right to do, for instance bashing a random stranger over the head with it. ;)

When I viewed this video the first time, one of the associated videos was from the winning company. Apparently they already have a small fleet (just from their video I saw at least three individual vans) of these same vans. So whatever criteria was used to select the winner, inability to afford the van wasn’t the most important one.

You have to remember that this test vehicle doesn’t start from orbit or high altitude. With just a 250 m drop any reasonably sized parachute wouldn’t be effective at all for something that heavy. I would imagine the full version could use parachutes at an earlier stage of the descent to slow the rocket and get it into the general area of the desired landing site. Then the rockets would be used to make the actual landing after the rocket is already at a relatively slow rate of descent.

I already mentioned it’s not one being used that’s a potential problem, it’s the possibility of up to several dozen at the same time. Also if you read the article the main concern is interference with GPS assisted take-offs and landings (like at night or in low visibility). In other words, the parts of the trip when planes are the closest to the ground, as well as each other. I don’t know about you, but during those times I think it’s pretty important that the pilot of a commercial airliner have accurate position and heading information (Aside: The tower ultimately is in control;but the instructions are relative to current positions so if a plane isn’t where the pilot believes it is, bad things can happen).

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